Folded wet tower guide



Sept. 16, 1969 a, g D s ETAL FOLDED WET TOWER GUIDE Filed June 30, 1967 BUELL L. DAVIS RICHARD D. PULLIAM I VENTOR.

AGENT United States Patent 3,467,293 FOLDED WET TOWER GUIDE Buell L. Davis and Richard D. Pulliam, Oklahoma City, Okla., assignors to Rollett Mfg. Inc., Oklahoma City, Okla., a corporation of Oklahoma Filed June 30, 1967, Ser. No. 650,478 Int. Cl. B65h 17/22, 23/08 US. Cl. 226-189 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An upright open type elongated framework is provided with a base portion for supporting an elongated strip of wet tenuous material when folded back and forth upon itself. Spaced-apart rollers, driven by motor connected belt and pulley means, mounted on the frame form a tortuous path through the frame in combination with a pair of spaced-apart fixed guides over which the material is longitudinally entrained.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to laundry machines and more particularly to a wet towel guide for feeding a plurality of continuous roller towels in side by side relation to an elongated mangle.

It has been conventional practice in laundering and ironing elongated roll or reel type tenuous material such as towels to position the individual wet towels, when folded back and forth upon themselves, in side by side relation adjacent a mangle so that the operators may feed one free end portion of the towel to the mangle and then maintain the towels in a transversely flat position as they are drawn into and through the mangle by its action. Since the wet towels have a tendency to wrinkle, twist and overlap or fold over upon themselves rather than remain flat they must be constantly watched and their position manually corrected. Under such conditions each operator can guide only a relatively few towels at a time.

Web guides, as shown by the prior art, have been principally directed toward guides for rolling, stitching or printing web material and do not disclose a means whereby a plurality of wet roll-type towels may be smoothed or transversely flattened and fed in side by side relation to a mangle with a minimum amount of attention. Furthermore, the driving and tension rollers of the prior art devices are for the most part, circular in cross section thus contiguously and continually contacting transversely the moving web. This is undesirable in continuous roll wet towel handling in that it induces rather than minimizes the wrinkling and overlapping tendency of the towel.

This invention provides a means whereby one operator may easily feed a plurality of roll-type wet towels in side by side relation to a mangle.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention comprises an elongated open type framework having forward and rearward standards extending upwardly from a horizontal base and interconnected by cross-bracing. A pair of spaced-apart elongated driving rollers extend longitudinally of and are horizontally journaled at the respective ends of the frame. Motor driven pulley and belt means are connected with the driving rollers. Horizontal rod-like guides are positioned between the driving rollers, one for each towel. A stationary elongated guide or slide is horizontally mounted on the frame in spaced lateral relation with respect to the driving rollers. The driving rollers and stationary guides thus provide a tortuous path over which the wet towel, positioned on the base in doubled back upon itself relation, is entrained and fed to a mangle, or the like, by the action of the driving rollers. One of the driving rollers is formed in cross section Z-shape to initially pick up the towel by contacting the towel at transverse longitudinally spacedapart points of contact thus providing air spaces between the points of contact. This action minimizes the tendency toward wrinkling. Thus when the starting end of the wet towel, entrained through the device, is fed to a mangle, the device feeds the towel to the mangle at a cooperating rate of travel while simultaneously maintaining the towel transversely flat and free of wrinkles or folded over positions.

It is, therefore, the principal object of this invention to provide a wet towel guide whereby one operator may simultaneously feed a plurality of wet towels to a mangle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The single figure is a fragmentary perspective view of the device illustrating, by dotted lines, the movement of a towel therethrough.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Like characters of reference designate like parts in those figures of the drawings in which they occur.

In the drawings:

The reference numeral 10, indicates the device, comprising a rigid open type frame 12 mounted on a rectangular horizontal base 14 having horizontal panels 15 thereon. The frame 12 includes a pair of front legs or standards 16 and 18 extending upwardly from one side forming the front of the base adjacent its opposing ends. Similarly a pair of rearward legs or standards 20 and 22 extend upwardly from opposing ends of the base at a point intermediate its transverse width and terminate in spaced relation above the horizontal plane of the front standards where the free end portions of the rearward standards are turned horizontally forward, a relatively short distance, toward the front of the frame, as at 24 and 26, respectively, for the purposes presently explained.

The upper ends of the front standards 16 and 18 are connected to the rearward standards, intermediate the ends of the latter, by horizontal end braces 28 and 30. A back brace 32 extends longitudinally between the rearward standards 20 and 22, in the plane of the braces 28 and 30, and are connected therewith at their juncture with the standards 20 and 22. An inverted substantially L-shaped or right angular brace 34 is connected by its respective ends to the rear standard 20 and the upper surface of the end brace 28, respectively. Similarly a second inverted substantially L-shaped brace 36 is connected to the other rear standard 22 and upper surface of the end brace 30.

An elongated pick-up and driving roller 38, Z-shaped in cross section and having coaxially aligned stub shafts at its respective ends, extends longitudinally of the frame and is journaled by its stub shafts by bearings 40 mounted, respectively, on the horizontal braces 28 and 30 adjacent the front standards 16 and 18 for rotation about a horizontal axis. A second driving or tension roller 42, preferably square or rectangular in cross section and similarly provided with stub shafts, extends longitudinally between and is mounted on the horizontal surface of the respec tive L-shaped braces 34 and 36 by bearings 44 for rotation about a horizontal axis. A motor 46 is mounted on a suitable support 48 connected with the back brace 32 rearwardly of the standard 12 and includes a drive pulley 50 mounted on its drive shaft. Pulleys 52, connected with the stub shaft on the adjacent end of the tension roller 42, are driven by a motor belt 54. Similarly, another pulley 56, connected with the stub shaft on the adjacent end of the Zrshaped driving roller 38, is driven by a crossed belt 58 from one of the pulleys 52 so that the tension roller 42 and pick-up roller rotate in opposite directions and at the same rate of rotation.

A stationary guide or slide 60 formed of elongated bar stock extends between and is connected to the upper surface of the rear standard end portions 24 and 26 as by welding or clamps 62. A pair of disk-like flanges 64 surround and are adjustably secured to the slide 60 in predetermined spaced-apart relation. One pair of thefianges 64 is positioned on the slide to form a portion of each path for a towel to pass therebetween as hereinafter explained.

A substantially U-shaped rod guide 66 lies in a horizontal plane with the bight portion 68 of the rod guide in parallel spaced relation with respect to the longitudinal axis of the driving rollers 38 and 42 and in downwardly off-set relation with respect to a plane therebetween. The end portions of the legs of the guide rod 66 are turned laterally downward of the plane of the U-shape and are removably received by upwardly open sockets 70 secured to the back brace 32. One of the rod guides 66 is positioned in cooperative alignment with each respective pair of the flanges 64 on the slide 60 to define another portion of the path of travel of a towel as hereinafter explained.

OPERATION An elongated wet towel 75, initially folded back and forth upon itself, indicated by the dotted lines, and positioned on the platform panel 15 has the free end 78 thereof manually entrained outwardly between the front standards 16 and 18, over the Z-shaped roller 38, under the rod guide 66, behind the tension roller 42 and over the forward side of the stationary guide 60 between a pair of the flanges 64 with the free end portion 78 received by a mangle, not shown. Thereafter, rotation of the motor 46 which drives the driving rollers 38 and 42 at a coordinated rate of travel for the towel 75 and the mangle so that the respective longitudinal edges of the Z-shaped roller picksup the towel from its doubled-back folded position. The Z-shape of the roller 38 functions to pick-up the tenuous material or towel without tending to wrinkle, twist or fold it by the open spaces formed between respective longitudinal edges of the Z-shape when it contacts the towel so that this roller does not continuously transversely contact the towel material. The rod guide 66 smooths or straightens out wrinkles in the towel. The respective flat surfaces of the tension roller 42 transversely contiguously contacts the towel and maintains it under a slight tension so that it positively contacts the guide rod 66. The pick up rollers of the mangle, not shown, maintains a similar tension on the towel as it moves longitudinally over the slide 60. Thus a plurality of towels 75, one for each pair of flanges 64 and rod guide 66, may be positioned on the platform panels 15 and entrained over the driving rollers and guides, as explained hereinabove, for simultaneous ironing action of the respective towels. In actual practice the respective towel needs little attention after being entrained through the device and fed to the mangle so that the operator is free to replace each towel position with another wet towel to be ironed as the respective position becomes empty.

Obviously the invention is susceptible to some change or alteration without defeating its practicability, and we therefore do not wish to be confined to the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings and described herein.

We claim: I

1. An apparatus for guiding longitudinal movement of tenuous material over a tortuous path, comprising: a supporting frame, said frame including a horizontal base portion adapted to receive and support said material when positioned thereon, forward standards connected with said frame, rearward standards connected with said frame and projecting upwardly above the upper ends of said forward standards, brace means interconnecting said standards at each end of the frame; a plurality of roller means mounted on said frame and extending transversely of the direction of movement of said material, said roller means including a pick-up roller, substantially Z-shaped in cross section, bearings mounted on said brace means and journalling said pick-up roller for rotation about a horizontal axis, a tension roller, rectangular in cross section, other bearings mounted on said brace means, and journalling said tension roller in lateral parallel spaced relation and above the axis of said pick-up roller; driving means synchronizing the movement of said roller means; guide means extending transversely of the direction of movement of said material and interposed between said roller means; and slide means mounted on the frame in parallel spaced relation above said roller means for guiding said material toward a predetermined path as it leaves said frame.

2. Structure as specified in claim 1 in which said driving means includes: a motor mounted on said frame, said motor having a drive pulley; pulley means mounted on said tension roller and said pick-up roller; and belts interconnecting said motor drive pulley with said pulley means on said rollers for a cooperating rate of rotation of said rollers in opposite directions.

3. Structure as specified in claim 2 in which said guide means includes: a substantially U-shaped rod-like member having its bight portion disposed transversely of the direction of travel of said material and interposed between said pick-up roller and said tension roller downwardly of a plane extending between the axis of said rollers, said U-shaped member having legs and having the free end portions of its legs removably connected with said frame.

4. Structure as specified in claim 3 in which said slide means includes: an elongated bar member extending horizontally between and connected with the upper end portions of said rearward standards above the plane of the axis of said tension roller; and a pair of flanges adjustably connected with said bar member.

5. Structure as specified in claim 4 in which said frame is elongated to provide a plurality of tenuous material stations in juxtaposed relation.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,315,459 3/ 1943 Stafford 226 X 3,137,054 6/1964 Mestral 2628 X 3,283,874 11/1966 Goreham 27052.5 X

M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner RICHARD A. SCHACHER, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 226-195 

